Kiss Me Quick
by FantasyGirl1992
Summary: When Lily realised that she was the only girl in her dormitory not to have had her first kiss yet, she made herself a promise: she would kiss someone by the end of the week. Who? Who knew. But it sure as hell wouldn't be Potter. Part One in 'Seven Weeks, Seven Kisses', a series of seven stories on how Lily Evans feel in love with James Potter. Rated for mild language.
1. Sunday: First Kisses

**Hello, readers, and thanks for joining! Basically I had a week alone in a youth hostel with nothing but a pad of paper and a pen to keep me entertained... The result was inevitable.**

**First things first, you may have guessed this already but I do not own Lily Evans, James Potter or any of the other characters who will be featuring in this fic. Apart from Jackie, who is an OC I invented to make up the numbers (I suspect she may be related to Bertha Jorkins, but haven't bothered to investigate this further).**

**Just a quick note to start with - this fic is headed towards Jily with all the inevitability of a cauldron explosion in a Potions class containing all four Marauders, but it will be detouring via a couple of other ships on the way. For diehard Jily fans, don't worry, we'll get there in the end, and for people who ship the other pairings, I am not writing this to shoot holes in your ship - I have read and enjoyed most of them (okay, not LE/PP...), but I will always be a Jily girl at heart and that's just not the way this fic is going. I know how defensive people can get over their ships but this is not meant to offend anyone!**

**This fic has been completely written, proof-read (by me, so sorry if I've missed any errors...) and uploaded as docs on this site, so I will be posting one chapter a day (UK time) from now until Saturday.**

**Rated for some fairly mild language.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

It was 9.30pm, and Lily Evans was already in bed. Not that this was something she made a habit of, but she'd been caught in the rain on the way back from helping Professor Kettleburn de-louse a batch of Nifflers (she had always had a soft spot for the barmy old teacher), and after a long, hot shower it would have been daft to get dressed again, so there she was in her faded old pyjamas, re-reading _The Twins at St Claire's._ When she had been little, going to a boarding school had seemed such a romantic idea. She had since found that the reality was a little different from what Enid Blyton had described – but then, perhaps that was just all the magic.

Her peaceful reverie was broken when the dormitory door burst open and not one, but all four of her roommates fell through it. Alice, Mary, Marlene, and Jackie. She loved them all, but she couldn't help wishing that they could have held off just for another half hour.

"All right, Grandma? Get your old bones out of bed and listen to this." Marlene's signature rudeness ringing in her ears, Lily set aside her book, making no attempt to hide her disgruntlement. "What have you done now?"

"Not _me_," Marlene corrected her significantly. "Mary."

Lily's eyes flickered to the brunette, arching an eyebrow. Of all her roommates, the serious, anxious Mary was the least likely to do anything stupid. Alice was also fairly sensible, but Marlene considered the day wasted if she hadn't done at least six outrageous things before breakfast, and poor, bumbling Jackie just didn't seem able to help herself.

Sure enough, Mary was blushing furiously. "SiriusBlackmighthavejustkissedme," she garbled.

Lily supressed an eye-roll. Of course, only the great Sirius Black could turn a girl that shade of magenta, though Merlin knew why. "So?" she said, trying to keep the impatience out of her voice. "Black kisses most people eventually." _That's three out of the five people in this room,_ she added silently, but thought it would be antagonistic to say so out loud.

"_But,_" said Marlene dramatically, "_That's_ not everything, is it, Mary?"

_Oh dear Merlin,_ begged Lily silently, _I don't want to know where this is going._

Mary turned a yet more violent shade of purple, if such a thing were possible. "It may have been my _first_ kiss."

"Her first kiss! Aged sixteen! Isn't that embarrassing?" crowed Marlene.

Alice, never one to join in with teasing, looked away awkwardly as Jackie nodded in agreement, and Lily, feeling herself redden slightly, buried her nose in her book again.

"Oh shut up, Marlene!" snapped Mary, her nose crinkling with irritation. "Just because you were, what, nine?"

"Eight and a half," corrected Marlene smugly. "Kingsley Shacklebolt. He was ten and I was completely in love with him."

"So in love that you've since rejected him six times," Jackie pointed out dryly.

"Well, he went and got all serious and hardworking, didn't he? How dull."

"So, Sirius Black, and Kingsley Shacklebolt," said Jackie, pointing first to Mary, then to Marlene. "And, er, Sirius was my first kiss too, actually…"

"You never told me that!" exclaimed Marlene indignantly (Marlene had had the rare and dubious honour of not only kissing Black, but actually dating him for a whole six weeks back in fourth year). Jackie grimaced guiltily at her. "It was before you went out with him," she amended apologetically.

Lily had scarcely had time to marvel at the fact that Jackie had managed to hide this revelation from Marlene for over a year, when Marlene had rounded on her. "And sweet, monogamous Alice has only ever had eyes for Frank, so that just leaves you, Lily Pad, who I suddenly realise has never revealed the identity of her first kiss!"

Lily was suddenly blushing more even than Mary. "I don't like to talk about it," she said hurriedly, keeping her eyes fixed on her book.

The other four girls exchanged looks. "It wasn't Snape, was it?" asked Marlene, barely keeping the contempt from her voice, and Lily recoiled at the derision with which she spoke of her best friend.

"No," said Alice, who was watching Lily intently. "My money's on Remus."

"Statistically you must have kissed Sirius Black at some point," remarked Jackie matter-of-factly, earning herself a poke in the ribs from Marlene.

"Or Benjy Fenwick!" interjected Mary triumphantly. "He's always had a thing for you."

"Just so long as it wasn't Peter Pettigrew," snorted Marlene, and the four collapsed in fits of giggles.

"I think Pettigrew is the _second_ least-likely candidate in school, after the obvious," said Alice eventually, when she had recovered herself.

"The obvious?" repeated Jackie, looking confused, as Marlene began to cackle gleefully. "Potter! Imagine, eh, Lily?"

"Yeah," agreed Lily, the knot in her stomach tightening. "Imagine."

x-x-x-x-x

Eventually the girls had realised that Lily wasn't going to be giving up the identity of her mystery kisser, and had subsequently lost interest. Now, several hours later, they were all asleep, Jackie snoring gently, but Lily lay wide awake, staring up at the hangings of her four-poster bed and thinking hard.

She had always told herself that she wanted her first kiss to be special, that she was waiting for the right boy, that she wouldn't be pressurised into doing something she didn't want to do. So why, she asked herself sternly, had she not just _told_ them that?

She knew exactly why. Marlene's words – _Her first kiss! Aged sixteen! Isn't that embarrassing?_ – echoed around her head._ Was_ it embarrassing, that she had never kissed anyone? For the first time in her life, Lily began to believe that it was. For the first time, she felt that she _did_ want her first kiss to happen, very much.

And so, swept away on a wave of teenage pride, Lily Evans made herself a promise. Today was Sunday – well, it was probably the early hours of Monday morning now, but that wasn't important. Lily Evans made herself a promise that by the next Sunday evening, she would have had her first kiss.

As for who would have the honour, she hadn't decided yet. Well, she had a few ideas, but she wasn't completely sure about any of them. One thing, however, she was very, very clear about: James Potter, the vile, arrogant, bullying toad who had so often professed undying devotion to her, would not be the lucky man. Never in a million years.


	2. Monday: Severus Snape

**Thank you to IWishIHadWeasleyHair, xxSiriusxxForeverxx and DerangedDynamic for** **your reviews on Chapter One, Chapter Two is for you :)**

* * *

Lily awoke the next morning with a plan ready-formed in her head. There really was only one option, wasn't there? Her best friend would always have done anything for her, and she had no doubt that Sev would be willing to help her achieve this particular goal.

She began to dress hurriedly, when suddenly she remembered that if she wanted to be – well, _kissable_ – it might be worth making a little more effort than she usually would. Trying not to dwell on the fact that she was effectively tarting herself up for _Sev_ of all people, she pulled her hair down out of its messy bun and reached for a hairbrush.

Half an hour later, she emerged from the girl's dormitory feeling remarkably self-conscious. She had spent more time than she would have thought possible tweaking her clothes in front of the mirror, undoing and redoing buttons (where, exactly, _was_ the line between alluring and slutty?) and adjusting her skirt until it hit what seemed like the right length. Her hair, so often pulled roughly back out of her eyes, fell in gentle waves around her face, and she had even experimented with some of Marlene's make up, stolen form the other girl's bedside table. The result, if she did say so herself, was quite pleasing, but she was now late for breakfast, and to make matters worse, when she hurried down the steps into the common room, she hurtled, perhaps inevitably, into one James Potter.

"Woah, Evans, slow down!" he exclaimed as he steadied her, and then he got a good look at her. "Woah!" he said again, but this time there was no mockery in his tone. He was gazing speechlessly at her, and Lily realised with a slight thrill that her efforts were having the desired effect.

And then she remembered that she had no desire to have any effect whatsoever on Potter, thank you very much, and with her best attempt at haughty disdain she shrugged him off her and hissed, "I can walk, thank you, Potter."

"Um, right, yeah," he managed, still gaping at her, as she turned on her heel and marched out through the portrait hole. She felt his stare burning the back of her neck, and found herself marvelling at the fact that she had just rendered Potter, cool, sarcastic, manipulative, arrogant Potter, temporarily speechless.

Potter was not the only one who had noticed the change, either. As she passed the Gryffindor fifth year boys to join Alice, Jackie, Mary, and Marlene, Lily realised with a stab of what could only be called horror that Sirius Black was watching her appreciatively as she walked by. Remus' brow was furrowed in a slight frown as he watched her, but Pettigrew had his back to her, and was too intently fixated on his bacon to wonder what his friends were looking at.

Lily sank into a seat opposite Marlene, whose face was twisted into a smirk. "Well, well, Lily Flower, what's all this in aid of? Or should I say, _who's_ all this in aid of?"

Lily felt herself flushing, but thankfully, Alice dived to her rescue. "I think she looks very nice," she said bracingly, as Lily poured herself some cereal, trying to hide behind the milk jug.

Marlene gave Lily a knowing look, but returned to her toast. As the other girls resumed debating whether Professor Scrimgeour, the attractive current Defence teacher, could possibly be convinced to stay on at the end of the year rather than leave to return to his career as an Auror, as he apparently planned to do, Lily finally let her eyes wander over to the Slytherin table. Sev was sitting alone, a book propped open against the toast rack. As though sensing her eyes on him, he looked up, and flashed her a wan smile.

The exact same smile he always gave her. It was as if he hadn't noticed a thing.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn.

x-x-x-x-x

It wasn't until lunchtime that Lily had a chance to put her plan, such as it was, into action. Even though it was March, and the weather still bitterly cold, she had a good idea of where Sev would be. He always liked to read in the same spot, sitting under a tree down by the lakeside. The tree was surrounded by bushes, and she supposed that he felt safely enclosed there.

Sure enough, there she found him, engrossed in _Hogwarts: A History._ "Don't you know that by heart now?" she teased him as she sat herself lightly down on the grass next to him.

"I can always find something I never noticed before," he mused quietly, and looked up at her as he closed the book. "Do you think Salazar Slytherin really built a secret chamber here at Hogwarts?"

"I hope not," said Lily breezily, hoping they weren't going to get bogged down in a debate. "It's Mudbloods like me he was out to get, isn't it?"

She knew instantly that she shouldn't have said that; Sev flinched visibly at the word. "I told you not to call yourself that," he said, his voice suddenly harsh.

"And _I_ told _you,_ I'm trying to reclaim the word," she countered, but moments later he had roughly grabbed her wrist and she winced. "I mean it, Lily. I don't ever want to hear you use that word about yourself."

"All right! All right," she said hurriedly. This conversation, she reflected, was not exactly going to plan. Sev surveyed her for a few moments, and then his expression softened. His grip on her arm loosened, but before he could move his hand away Lily, throwing caution to the winds, reached across with her opposite hand and laced her fingers through his.

He frowned down at her hand. "Lily?"

She didn't answer, and he didn't move his eyes from their entwined fingers. "What are you doing, Lily?"

_This is it,_ she thought, and swallowed hard. "Well the thing is, I've been thinking…"

"Yes?"

Did she dare? His jaw was so tightly clenched.

"About how… About how I've never kissed anyone." Dear Merlin, why did her cheeks always insist on betraying her at moments like this? You could have friend an egg on them.

"Oh." He continued to frown down at her hand, then shrugged. "Well, don't worry about it. Neither have I."

And there it was, the point of no return. "Well," she said carefully, "There's a solution to that, isn't there?"

At last he looked up sharply, his eyes searching her face, though for what, exactly, she didn't know. "What precisely are you saying, Lily?"

And finally it hit her. What _was_ she saying? She had been chanting the words in her head all morning. _It's only a kiss, only a kiss, only a kiss._ But the way his knuckles were turning white as he held onto her now told her what she had always known, but had pretended not to notice.

With Sev, it would never be only a kiss. He was her best friend, and she loved him. And he loved her, and though she had always told herself that it was in the same way, she knew in her heart of hearts that it wasn't quite.

If she kissed Sev now, things would never be the same again. She would forever have to live with the consequences of having done something she didn't really mean.

And, dear Merlin, the grease was practically _dripping_ out of his hair. How had she not noticed it before?

All this crossed her mind in a matter of moments, and then she descended into an immediate panic. Wrenching her hand forcefully from Sev's grip, she stumbled to her feet. "I… never mind," she blurted out, before turning tail and fleeing back up to the castle.

Her last thought was of the cold, unreadable expression in his eyes as she pulled her hand away, before she found herself barrelling into – for who else could it be? – James Potter.

"Starting to think you need glasses, Evans," he joked, clearly over his earlier speechlessness.

Lily was in no mood to deal with Potter or any of his stupid little gang. "Go to Hell, Potter!" she snarled, and he actually took a step backwards at the ferocity in her expression. Horribly aware that Remus was still giving her the same appraising look that he had sent her way at breakfast, she pushed a sniggering Black out of her way and bolted up to the common room. She might have stayed there all afternoon were it not for the fact that Monday afternoon was double Arithmancy and she shared that class only with Remus. His calculating gaze might make her a little uncomfortable, but at least he could be relied upon not to ask what was bothering her; at least until he sensed that she was good and ready to talk about it.


	3. Tuesday: Remus Lupin

**Thank you to IWishIHadWeasleyHair, MaryLouise1996, xxSiriusxxforeverxx, Invisiblegirl3, abbylmerrill and Emullz for your reviews for Chapter Two :)**

**Also, just to be completely clear, Lily doesn't know about Remus', ahem, furry little problem at this point.**

* * *

Sure enough, Remus managed to resist the urge to question Lily all through Arithmancy, and by the time she went to dinner she had recovered enough not to try to break Black's neck when he deliberately catapulted into a rather bemused-looking Potter in what was obviously supposed to be an impression of her. Instead, she forced herself to rise above it, and sauntered by the boys to join Alice, who was watching as Marlene and Jackie dissected Mary's wardrobe and explained what vital improvements needed to be made.

By the next morning, Lily had in fact managed to convince herself that everything would be fine with Sev and instead turned her mind to the matter in hand; she now had only six days in which to fulfil the promise she had made to herself.

The problem with kissing Sev, she now realised, was that they were just _too_ close. Of course things would get weird between them if they kissed. After a great deal of thought, however, Lily had decided that while Remus was one of her best friends, their relationship could probably survive a meaningless snog. Indeed the more she thought about it, the more she realised that kissing Remus was a _much_ more inviting prospect than kissing Sev. She tried to tell herself that this wasn't simply because Remus, unlike Sev, was scrupulously well-groomed.

Unfortunately, the pre-match nerves were even stronger with Remus than they had been with Sev; although perhaps that was just because of the embarrassment of one failed attempt weighing her down. Either way, this time Lily was prepared, and deliberately got up early to recreate the image of the day before. Marlene emerged from the bathroom to find Lily fluffing up her hair, and didn't bother repressing her snigger. "Okay, Lils, if you're not going to tell who you're after, at least let me help you."

Not long later, Lily followed her friends down to breakfast, uncomfortably aware that the red lipstick Marlene had insisted on was one shade closer to "harlot" than she was really happy with. If nothing else, she was convinced that it clashed with her hair.

It wasn't until they reached the Entrance Hall that Lily realised that she had forgotten her books for History of Magic, their first class. As the girls rolled their eyes, Lily doubled back on herself and retraced her steps back up to Gryffindor Tower.

Potter, who seemed to be stalking her this week with greater intensity than he ever had before – a feat she would not previously have believed possible – was lounging in an armchair by the fire as though waiting for her. "Looking good again, Evans," he remarked, grinning broadly, and she threw him a hostile look as she stalked over to the stairs.

When she passed him again on the way out, she couldn't stop herself voicing the question that had been niggling at her all the while she was in the dormitory. "Are you not coming down to breakfast, or are you just going to wait there for another chance to harass me?"

"Of course I'll keep you company, if you're lonely," he replied, with a wink, and she screwed up her face in annoyance. "I'm fine, thank you, Potter."

He gave a dramatic sigh. "Very well. I'll just languish here, spurned again."

"You do that," she snapped, and turned to storm out, but he spoke again, and something in his voice made her pause. "Whoever it is you're doing this all for, he doesn't deserve you, Evans."

For a moment she almost turned, but then he spoke again, and his usual joking tone had returned – although it might have sounded a little more forced than usual. "I mean, I don't deserve you either, but at least I know that, eh, Evans?"

She didn't allow herself to turn back and look at him. Instead, she charged out of the common room, trying not to replay his words in her head, or remember the seriousness with which he had said them.

x-x-x-x-x

Lily had been a little nervous about History of Magic, because the Gryffindors shared those classes with the Slytherins, which meant seeing Sev. For all that she had told herself that everything would be fine between them, that was more of a long-term outlook; it didn't necessarily mean she was naïve enough to expect things to go back to normal straight away. It was therefore something of a relief when Sev flopped into his usual seat beside her. "Hey."

"Hi." Dear Merlin, her palms were sweating. If she felt this awkward just after holding his hand for a few moments, how bad would it have been if she had actually kissed him?

"Are you all right?" He was frowning slightly as he looked at her. _No of course I'm not bloody all right!_ she wanted to yell. _Yesterday I tried to _kiss_ you!_

But she held it all in, and forced herself to smile. "Yeah. I'm fine."

He nodded, and turned to face the front, where Professor Binns was beginning his daily monologue. Lily looked up at the ghostly teacher too, but after a moment she was glancing down as something touched her hand.

Without looking at her, Sev had reached across to give her fingers a gentle squeeze. He retracted his hand a moment later and Lily, hardly daring to look at him, kept her eyes fixed on Binns – though she absorbed even less of his lecture than usual.

She understood the gesture. Yes, things were a little bit weird for now but – as she had constantly sought to reassure herself – eventually, she and Sev would be fine.

x-x-x-x-x

Remus didn't look up when Lily dropped her bag into the empty seat beside him. This didn't bother her – she could see that he was pouring over _Magical Draughts and Potions,_ and it was probably taking all his concentration not to explode the nearest cauldron just by thinking about making a potion in it.

"Do you need any help?" she asked him gently, not wanting to make him jump. Remus was always dead to the world when he was reading.

He twitched in spite of her efforts. "Oh. Hey, Lily."

"Hi," she said, flashing him a smile. He looked at her beaming face, apparently noting the lipstick, and returned it with a thin, closed smile of his own.

Lily decided to dive straight in before she had a chance to chicken out. She moved so that she was standing behind Remus who, once again engrossed in his book, did not notice. Stealing herself for what she was about to do, Lily wrapped her arms around Remus from behind.

He stiffened instantly in her hold. "Er, Lily…"

"Kiss me, Remus," she whispered into his ear.

Remus shrugged her off with such force that she staggered backwards. "What the hell, Lily?" he demanded, spinning around to face her. He found her standing behind him, watching him with genuine fear in her expression. Lily, to her horror, was fighting the urge to cry. It wasn't so much the fact that it was Remus – the sting of rejection just hurt on principle.

"Has this all been for _me?_" Remus asked, gawping at her. "The short skirts and the hair and that ridiculous lipstick?"

The harsh words were too much, and to her shame a tear leaked out, and she felt it running hot down her burning cheek.

His expression shifted at once to one of guilt. "Lily? Lily, I'm sorry…" He stood up and wrapped his arms around her, and although her pride told her to push him away, she couldn't quite bring herself to do it.

"You know I care about you a lot…" he began, and suddenly the reality of the situation fell into place for Lily. He thought… Dear Merlin, he actually thought…

"Remus, I don't _like_ you," she spluttered into his chest.

"Er…"

"I mean, obviously I like you, but not like that."

"So, er… Explain?" he asked hesitantly, which was fair enough, she supposed.

"I just wanted…" She muttered something, even she wasn't sure what, into his shirt.

"Come again?"

"I just wanted to kiss you, because I never kissed anyone before, and I thought you'd probably be nice about it."

"Ah." There was a long pause. "You can see where I got confused."

"Humph."

And then – and for a moment she hated him for it – she felt his chest rise and fall as he began to chuckle.

She hit him.

"Ouch! I'm sorry, Lily, but honestly, you must see the funny side of this…"

"Don't see it," she mumbled petulantly. He gave her a tight squeeze before stepping back to look her dead in the face. "But Lily, seriously, you know I never could, don't you?"

"What?"

"Lily, James would literally tear me into a million pieces."

"I still don't understand why you're friends with him," she said, scowling.

"I wouldn't expect you too," he replied simply, and not for the first time, Lily had the sense that there was something he wasn't telling her. She wrinkled her nose and tried a different tact. "Anyway, Potter thinks he likes me, so what? Didn't stop Black going after Jackie when he knew Peter liked her."

Remus sighed, and reached out to give her arm a squeeze. "But the thing is, Lily, I'm not Sirius. And," and here his voice filled with a deep significance she wished she could ignore, "You're not just Jackie, either."

As she replayed his words in her mind, the beginnings of an idea started to form. It was an idea that made her feel slightly ill, but in the interests of fulfilling her vow…

For now, however, she had more important things to deal with.

"Is the lipstick really that bad?" she demanded, and his expression shifted from one of sincerity to one of bewilderment. "Because I _told_ Marlene I didn't like it."

And then, thank Merlin, he started to laugh again, and she joined in, and they stood there in the library, chuckling together as he looped his arms around her and squeezed her into one last hug.

* * *

**I'll be honest, I found it quite hard to resist the urge to just let Lily and Remus kiss here... It would have completely ruined the story but they're so cute together, and who _wouldn't_ want to kiss Remus?**


	4. Wednesday: Sirius Black

**Thank you to ****MaryLouise1996, ****Invisiblegirl3 and xxSiriusxxforeverxx for your reviews of Chapter 3.**

* * *

Wednesday just so happened to be Potter's birthday. Most Gryffindors – or at least, the four loudest of their number – seemed to think that this made it some sort of national holiday, and Lily entered the common room (her hair still styled in waves, but without the lipstick) to find that it had been overrun with about four hundred balloons, a phenomenon with which Lily was of course familiar but which presented something of a novelty to the purebloods. Lily waded through the mass of balloons (red and gold, naturally) and came to a rest alongside the huddled Marauders, who all looked very pleased with themselves.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" she demanded of Black, who she somehow suspected was the chief culprit – although she would have loved to know where he had learned what a balloon was.

Black threw his arms out wide, as though indicating an abdication of responsibility. "Prefect's permission, Evans."

Remus threw her a sheepish grin, but Lily avoided his eye. In the cold light of not-the-library, last night's episode suddenly felt far less amusing and far more embarrassing.

"Well, make sure you clean it all up," she told them grumpily. "And happy birthday," she added begrudgingly to the man himself, who was looking even more self-satisfied than usual, if such a thing were possible.

"Why thank you, my dear Evans," Potter beamed. "I trust that you will join us for my surprise party later?"

"A party?" For a moment, the prefect in Lily wanted to threaten to tell McGonagall, but then she remembered her plan. Actually, a party tonight would fit in perfectly. "I may show my face," she said severely, pretending not to notice as the four boys exchanged surprised glances. Clearly they, too, had been anticipating a lecture.

As she turned to leave, she suddenly realised what James had said, and spun back around. "Wait. How can it be a surprise party if you already know about it?"

James' grin broadened. "That, my dear Evans, is the surprise."

This made so little sense that she couldn't be bothered to pursue it. She just gave an incredulous little shake of the head, and went down for breakfast.

x-x-x-x-x

The music floating up from the common room told the girls that the party was already in full swing, but Lily was resisting the others' pleas to hurry up and go down. She paced the dormitory nervously, alternating between trying to steal herself to carry out her plan, and telling herself that it was a completely idiotic idea and she would do better to go to bed right now and forget all about it.

Eventually, however, Marlene and Jackie lost patience, grabbed an arm each, and frogmarched her down to the common room, Mary and Alice bringing up the rear.

Potter's face lit up when he saw them, and for a bizarre moment Lily felt a stab of guilt when she thought about what she was about to do. Potter threw an arm around her, practically pushing Jackie out of his way in order to do so, and dragged her away from Marlene to where Remus and Black were standing by the fireplace, engrossed in conversation. "I told you she'd come," he said triumphantly, pushing Lily in between them.

For a moment, Lily thought she saw a solemn look in Black's grey eyes, but a second later she was sure she must have imagined it, as his face split into a broad grin. "Now I've seen everything."

"Not everything," corrected Peter gleefully, who had followed James over. "Where's that firewhisky?"

For a moment, Lily hesitated. She had spent a lot of time worrying about this during the day. It was a Marauder's party, which inevitably meant that there would be firewhisky. On the one hand, this was completely illegal, and she was a prefect. On the other, making a fuss could hardly help her with her mission. In fact, the alcohol could be helpful. If she pretended to get drunk, in the morning she could blame her actions on that alone. And to make the pretence realistic, she would have to drink a little bit – and the whole thing might be easier to stomach is she had taken a little something to numb the senses.

Black, who had produced a bottle, seemed to sense some of her internal struggle, and his grin broadened. "She's never going to do it, Prongs."

"A galleon on it, my dear Padfoot," replied Potter. Not for the first time, Lily wondered about those nicknames.

"Done," said Black, and before Lily's very eyes, they shook on it.

"You don't have to do this, Lily," said Remus in a low voice. She looked up at him, and saw in his face that he was really telling her that he didn't think she should.

She felt a sudden stab of irritation towards her friend. She could almost sense the self-righteous disapproval radiating off him, and when Black handed her the tiny shot glass of firewhisky her resolve hardened. Tossing her hair back out of her face, she lifted the glass up to her lips and swallowed it down in one.

The fiery liquid hit the back of her throat like a brick, burning the inside of her mouth. And the taste… Lily realised too late that she was screwing up her face in disgust. Black and Potter burst out laughing, and even Remus let his lips twitch into a strained smile.

Lily blinked at them all. She felt as though she had been clouted over the head with a large club.

"Bit much, Evans?" Black taunted, and Lily felt another wave of indignation wash over her. "I'm fine, Black." And to prove her point, she grabbed the bottle out of his hands and lifted it to her mouth. As the boys looked on, stunned, she took one, two, three, four gulps, and more, until eventually she gave up, gasping for air as the liquid sloshed uncomfortably around inside her empty stomach.

No one spoke for almost a whole minute, until Remus finally broke the silence. "Er, Lily? Are you sure that was a good idea?"

Lily surveyed the near-empty bottle in her hand. "Oh."

Black, who had been gawping along with the others, grinned again. "This party just got interesting," he announced, and before Lily knew what was happening, he was dragging her off to dance.

x-x-x-x-x

Half an hour later, the effects of the firewhisky had fully set in. Lily had never been drunk before, had never had more than a couple of butterbeers whilst in Hogsmeade, and from behind a veil of hazy numbness she reflected that it was quite a liberating sensation. She could do anything tonight, and rest in this sanctuary free of embarrassment or consequences.

Eventually she became aware of Sirius tugging at her arm, and realised that he was dragging her towards his dormitory. She wondered idly why he didn't just kiss her in front of the whole common room, but she supposed that maybe he was, as Remus had suggested, just a little afraid of James.

She stumbled after him, and let him pull her to what she assumed was his bed. They felt onto it together, and he helped her so that eventually she was lying next to him, their faces inches apart on his pillow.

She lay very still, just waiting. Surely, _surely,_ nothing could go wrong now?

"I know what you're doing," he whispered softly.

"Hmm?"

"Remus told me about yesterday."

"Oh." There wasn't much else she could say, really.

"And the thing is, Evans, it would have sort of ruined Prongs' birthday if he'd've had to watch you getting off with someone else, so Remus and I agreed that I should distract you."

Lily felt vaguely as though she should object to this plan, but everything was fuzzy and only one clear thought came to mind. "If you kissed me now, he wouldn't have to watch," she pointed out, with what struck her as excellent reasoning.

Black gave a throaty chuckle. "Nothing doing, Evans. I'm sorry."

Lily pushed herself up into a seating position, shifting so that he was behind her, her feet dangling off the edge of the bed. "You disappoint me, Black," she told the wall opposite her. "I'd heard promising things about you."

All she had meant was that she had assumed, based on popular opinion, that he would be more than willing to so what he usually did and kiss the girl without a thought for the consequences, but he laughed and she realised through the fog that he would take this as a reference to his – well, _technique._

"And all true, I'm sure," he said, moving to sit next to her. "But sadly for you, Lilyflower, you're the one girl who can never find out."

When he sat up, he jostled the bed, and she swayed. The motion made her head spin and she blinked several times.

"Lily? He sounded suddenly concerned.

She realised what was about to happen a split second before it did. With no time to run for the bathroom, she bent over and vomited onto his shoes.

_Oh well, _she thought miserably_, at least you didn't get his face._

"What in Merlin's name is going on in here?" came a voice from behind her. It was vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place it, and neither could she bring herself to lift her head.

"Evans was feeling a bit queasy, so we came up here to get her some water," said Black, and Lily was mildly impressed by the ease with which he lied.

"And you couldn't have put her on your own bed? You had to let her throw up on mine?"

Black guffawed. "Like you wouldn't go mental if you ever saw Lily Evans in my bed."

"Scourgify," said the other voice testily, as another pair of shoes came into Lily's view. The pool on the floor vanished, although Black's feet still looked a little worse for wear.

"I'll sort myself out then, shall I?" remarked Black, clearly noticing this too, and Lily watched as his feet marched themselves and their owner out of sight.

Potter, for of course it was he, took up his place at once, gingerly rubbing Lily's back with his hand. "Is it all up, or shall I get you to a bathroom?"

"All gone," replied Lily with a groan.

The hand on her back stopped moving, settling instead in the small of her back. She still felt miniscule movement, as though he was tracing tiny circles against her skin with his fingertips. "You know, Evans," he said softly, "If all the hostility was your way of telling me you fancied my best mate, you could have just come out with it."

Now that all the alcohol had been ejected from her stomach, her head felt a little clearer, too – although a thick wave of agony was descending and she suspected the clarity would be fleeting. "Not Black. Urgh."

"Oh? So what was tonight all about?"

At least she had a ready-made excuse. "Guess it was the alcohol."

"Hmm." He didn't sound convinced.

"Why're you here, anyway?" It came out more aggressively than she he meant it – and anyway, _she_ was the one sitting on _his_ bed. "I mean instead of enjoying the party?" she amended quickly.

He hesitated for a long moment. "I'd rather be here," he said eventually.

"Really?" At last she managed to sit herself upright, but she didn't quite dare turn to look at him.

"Yep. I guess I must really be in love with you, Lily."

She froze. Potter said a lot of stupid things that she didn't pay a lot of attention to. He asked her out almost on a daily basis. He tauntingly referred to her as his future wife, he joked about his heart breaking every time she refused him, and he had even thrown the L-word around before – but always in jest, always with that slight tone of mockery that made her ignore and even dislike him.

This time, she sensed, was different, and it troubled her. But she was in no state to deal with her worries tonight.

"I think," she said slowly, "I feel well enough to go back to my own dorm, now."

The hand fell away from her back. "Okay." His voice was impassive.

She stood up carefully, and he sat watching her, tensed ready to reach out and steady her if necessary, but she didn't falter. As quickly as she could under the circumstances, she made her way to the door, but when she reached it, she turned and looked at him for the first time. "Happy birthday, James."

Judging by the smile that crossed his face, the unprecedented use of his given name did not go unnoticed. "Good night, Lily."


	5. Thursday: Benjy Fenwick

**Thank you to Abby0512x, ****queensimi88, MaryLouise1996 and abbylmerrill for your reviews to Chapter 4. Also, I just realised that I've been forgetting to thank Guest reviewers (I keep forgetting to moderate them so they're not showing up on the page), so thank you to those mystery people...**

**Anyway, hopefully the fact that today's update's a bit earlier than usual will make up for the fact that it's also slightly shorter.**

* * *

By the next morning, they were back to Evans and Potter. Lily had awoken with only hazy memories, and her humiliation at what she did remember was translated into defensive fury. Potter, for his part, seemed embarrassed by his own moment of vulnerability, and was being twice as annoying as usual in order to make up for it. And, of course, he wasn't finding it particularly difficult to annoy her, as he could do so by telling anyone who would listen that she had thrown up on his bed.

Black, at least, was staying out of things, but Remus dragged Lily off for a "quiet word" at the first available opportunity. She was startled by the odd expression in his eyes when he spoke. "Listen to me very carefully, Evans. You might not believe what James says about how he feels about you, or what the rest of us have all been telling you, but the thing is, he _does_ like you, a lot. And so parading around in front of him with one of his best friends is _not on._" She opened her mouth to respond angrily, but he cut across her. "So if you're still determined to go ahead with this ridiculous succumb-to-peer-pressure-and-snog-the-first-bloke- who'll-have-you plan, do it somewhere James doesn't have to watch you." He paused, before adding: "Or me, for that matter."

She gaped at him for a moment, before firing back the only response that came to mind. "Since when have you called me Evans?"

His mouth twitched slightly, though whether to grin or grimace she couldn't tell. "Since when do you get drunk, flirt hopelessly with a notorious playboy, and then throw up in his best friend's bed?"

The story sounded even worse coming from Remus' mouth than it had in the confines of her own head, but Lily forced herself to brush that aside. "Anyway, _Lupin,_ I hope you don't think I've forgotten how manipulative _you_ were being last night. It was _you_ who set Black on me, so you're as much to blame as anyone."

"From what I understand, Sirius conducted himself with unusual honour and decency," replied Remus dryly, "Which is more than can be said for you. And I was only trying to protect my friend." He surveyed her for a long moment. "Two of my friends, actually." And then he was gone, before she had the chance to ask him exactly what he meant by that.

x-x-x-x-x

Marlene, naturally, was taking far too much interest in what had happened, so that come lunchtime Lilly found herself under intensive interrogation for a second time. "The thing is," said Marlene matter-of-factly, as she touched up her lipstick in the girls' toilets, "That Potter's telling everyone you were in _his_ bed, but I _saw_ you go up there with Sirius. So which is it?" Lily saw her eyes glittering wickedly in the reflection in the mirror. "Unless, of course, it's both, but I never thought either of them were into that…"

"It's neither," snapped Lily. "And I wasn't _in_ anyone's bed, I just happened to be sitting _on_ Potter's."

"Aha," said Marlene, "Except the thing is, I don't believe you. I know what those two are like. Especially Sirius. So something must have happened."

"You know what happened," Lily told her wearily. "I threw up on Black's shoes and Potter cleared it up."

Marlene cackled. "Okay, so put it another way: what was _going_ to happen before that – ahem – unfortunate turn of events?"

Lily thought back to Black's face, inches from hers, and Potter's warm hand on her back. And she remembered just what Potter had said to her. "Nothing," she insisted, and she just hoped that she sounded more confident than she felt. "Nothing at all."

x-x-x-x-x

By the time dinner was over, Lily was so fed up of Gryffindors pretending to projectile vomit into gravy boats whenever she walked passed that she stormed off to the library alone, and instead of heading to the large table in the middle which her house usually populated, she made for the cluster of smaller desks behind several rows of shelves, where she usually sat with Sev. As she approached, however, she heard muttered voices and paused.

"I supposed you heard by now, Severus, that the Mudblood you're so fond of is now crawling into bed with the blood traitor, Black."

Lily wracked her brains, trying to identify the voice. Travers, maybe? Or Evan Rosier?

"Imagine, so much filth in one bed." That was definitely Mulciber. His voice had always made her skin crawl.

"Believe me, Severus, it gets so much easier once you disown them." The third speaker, Lily realised with a jolt, was Sirius' brother, Regulus. "Disown them, forget them, leave them to their filthy ways and concentrate on your own matters."

And at last, at long, long last, Sev spoke up. But as she listened, Lily's heart sank.

"It's no concern of mine what she does."

It was not so much the words that made Lily's insides give an uncomfortable wrench, as the harshness with which he said them. As though it were true, as though he really didn't care.

If she had been seeking comfort in Sev, it was now clear that there was none to be found. Unable to listen to any more, she turned on her heel and sped silently away.

x-x-x-x-x

In her upset, Lily didn't notice that someone was in her way until she had catapulted into them. For a moment she was resigned to the fact that, knowing her luck, it would probably be Potter, but then she remembered that this was the library. She doubted that Potter, for all his intimate knowledge of Hogwarts' secrets, would be able to find the library if you set him off from just outside the door.

She took a step back and with a confusing jolt recognised Benjy Fenwick, a Ravenclaw in the year above. They had been friends at one point, but had drifted apart after he had asked her out and she'd said no.

Now, however, she was just relieved to see a semi-friendly face who Potter's gossip almost certainly wouldn't have spread to. And, since it seemed unlikely that any Gryffindor would have been willing to offer her any sympathy over her encounter with Sev, even if they hadn't all been busy laughing at her, she forced herself to smile. "Benjy! Hi!"

"Hey, Lily." He looked a little wary. She supposed it had been a long time since she had greeted him so enthusiastically.

"How are you?" Aware that Madame Pince would be prowling around, she gestured with her head that they should duck behind the nearest bookshelf. He followed her, still looking slightly suspicious. "Yeah, I'm all right. Yourself?"

"Yeah, yeah, fine," she lied hurriedly. For a moment she hesitated, but then she decided that she couldn't get any lower than rock bottom, which was where she felt like she was now, and decided to just have out with it. "Listen, I feel really bad about how I acted before…"

He stiffened noticeably, but she forced herself to carry on regardless. "And I was thinking, if it's not too late, maybe we could go for that coffee? Or something?"

"Oh!" He looked genuinely surprised. "Er, Lily… You do realise I'm seeing Emmeline Vance, don't you?"

No, of course she hadn't realised. Lily reflected that she had blushed more in the past few days than in the rest of her life put together. "Oh! I'm sorry… I mean… That's great, I just didn't…"

"Yeah, well," he said quickly, and to her relief, she saw that he was blushing too. "She's great, so…"

"Of course, of course." Lily didn't want to have to hear him say the actual words of rejection. "So I'll… I'll see you around, maybe."

"Sure," he said, and smiled. She forced herself to return it, but after a moment, a roguish glint flickered in his eyes. "Just try not to throw up on me, eh?"

She couldn't supress a moan of frustration as she turned and quite literally ran away. As she heard him chortling behind her, she realised that she had been wrong after all. A few minutes ago she hadn't been at rock bottom, but this – this definitely had to be it.


	6. Friday: Peter Pettigrew

**Thank you to Invisiblegirl3 and IWishIHadWeasleyHair for your reviews in Chapter 5.**

**Also, I realise that Peter isn't portrayed especially sympathetically here, so it's important to note from the outset that this is Lily's perception of him. Obviously he must have had hidden depths for the other Marauders to want to be friends with him, but Lily can't see those at this point.**

* * *

The advantage of being at rock bottom, Lily decided as she lay in bed the next morning, trying to muster the strength to get up and face the day, was that you couldn't sink any lower. And when you can't sink any lower, you may as well just settle for the worst.

Which was why Lily decided to disregard Remus' advice (she refused to consider his words of the previous day a warning) and target another of Potter's friends. For who, as Marlene had so cruelly observed, could be worse than Peter Pettigrew? And who, more to the point, could be more _desperate_ that Peter Pettigrew?

Unfortunately, the chubby boy so rarely went anywhere without at least one of Potter or Black (whichever, the rest of the school assumed, had deigned to put up with his presence at the time) that it was going to be a little difficult to get him on his own. And getting him on his own was essential – she had no intention of letting anyone else find out about this. Pettigrew, at least, could be relied upon to be too scared of Potter to say anything to anyone, ever.

All of this meant that she would have to use whatever cunning she had to orchestrate this attempt. Fortunately Pettigrew wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, and it would be easier to trick him than it would have been with, say, Black.

So she scribbled a note for Pettigrew, signed from Slughorn, telling him to get to Potions, their first class, early. She hovered behind a suit of armour outside the Great Hall until she saw the Gryffindor boys go in for breakfast, and left it another couple of minutes before pouncing on a gaggle of first years. "You there," she said in her best Prefect voice, selecting one at random. "See that Peter Pettigrew gets this, will you? It's from Slughorn." Hopefully if Pettigrew or any of the other boys questioned the girl, she would just mention Slug and leave out all reference to Lily.

The first-year looked positively terrified at being asked to approach one of the four most notorious boys in school, but she nodded, wide-eyed, and scuttled off into the Great Hall. Lily watched her go, then set off down to the dungeons to wait.

There was a slight danger that Slughorn would catch his favourite pupil hanging around in his classroom early and try to engage her in conversation, but the risk really was a small one – Slug usually arrived late to morning lessons, having overslept and eaten a leisurely breakfast alone in his room. She hoped he would do so today, not least because even Pettigrew might get suspicious if called to meet a teacher he could see to still be eating breakfast, and she wouldn't put it past Remus and Black between them to work out the truth of who had sent the note, and why.

She took a seat in the deserted Potions classroom, and waited. It wasn't long before the door creaked open and Pettigrew entered, thankfully alone. "Lily? Did Slug ask for you, too?"

"Er, not exactly." She glanced around the room, suddenly aware that if she did this out in the open, anyone could burst in on them. "Can I have a quick word? In here?"

She gestured to the student store cupboard. Pettigrew's eyes widened, but he looked bemused rather than suspicious. "Okay," he said, and Lily led him into the small room, scarcely able to believe that he was so pliable. She hoped that the rest of the encounter would be so easy.

"Kiss me," she demanded, as soon as the door was closed. She somehow sensed that it would be necessary to be abrupt – Pettigrew probably wouldn't even notice if she attempted to seduce him more subtly.

"What?" He was so surprised that he stumbled backwards, knocking over a jar of rat eyes which spilt out onto the floor, rolling around Lily's feet.

"You heard me. Kiss me once, here, now, and then we never speak of this again, to each other or anyone else." As she said the words, she realised that this could not be less like how she had imagined her first kiss when she was younger. There were supposed to have been trees, and soft sunlight, and a gentle breeze. Not darkness, the smell of damp, a scattering of eyeballs and a plump, spotty boy staring at her in horror.

Pettigrew shook his head slowly, his mouth hanging open slightly. "No. No way."

Anger rose from the pit of Lily's stomach. Who did he think he was? It wasn't as though girls were queuing up to kiss him – who was he to turn one down when she offered?

Buoyed by a new furious determination, she reached out and grabbed Peter by the collar. He struggled as she pulled him towards her, leaning in to meet him. They were an inch apart…

The door opened and Slughorn's booming voice ran out. "What the blazes is going on in here?"

Lily began to stutter wordlessly, as Pettigrew leapt out of the cupboard like a shot. "Nothing happened, I swear!" he exclaimed - but he wasn't looking at Slughorn.

In the doorway stood the three most unlikely candidates for being early to class: Potter, flanked by Black and Remus. Lily realised that they were all staring, not at Pettigrew, not at Slughorn, but at her.

Black's expression was strangely unreadable. He didn't look angry, or even particularly surprised, but there was a coldness in his face that made her shudder. It was almost like disappointment.

Remus, on the other hand, looked furious. Lily could see that he was thinking or their conversation of the day before, and that his anger with her for ignoring him was unbounded.

But the worst – the worst by far – was the look on James Potter's face. He had gone completely white, and for a moment she thought he was going to scream at her. But after a few seconds, he just turned and walked to the desk furthest from the store cupboard, dropping his bag onto it in silence. He sat down, facing the front steadily, and as Lily watched him she was overcome with the strangest urge to go to him, yet unable to make herself move.

The opportunity was removed, as first Black, then Remus, crossed the room to join him, and Pettigrew scuttled anxiously after them. The three arranged themselves around Potter, effectively cutting him off from the rest of the room.

The stony silence that filled the room was broken when the door opened and Alice walked in, chatting away amicably with Frank. They were followed by Marlene, Jackie, and Mary, and moments later the Slytherins too began to pour in. If anyone noticed the tension in the room, they didn't say anything.

Sev was sitting in his usual seat, and looked expectantly up at Lily as though waiting for her to join him. She stared blankly at him, his words in the library from the night before ringing once again in her ears. _It's no concern of mine._ She remembered how flat and cold his voice had been, and she knew that she could not bring herself to sit by him today.

She made herself give him a weak smile, but turned and went to sit next to Mary. As she sat down, she saw that he was watching, an expression of hurt and confusion on his face. She looked away quickly. This was his own fault. Maybe at some point she would talk to him about it, but not now. Not today.

Today she didn't want to have to deal with anything more. And the day had barely even started.

x-x-x-x-x

After some effort, Lily managed to find a quiet corner of the library where she was fairly sure she wouldn't be found by any of the several people she was trying to avoid. She had already eaten a hurried dinner, and escaped as quickly as possible.

All things considered, she hadn't been getting as much work done this week as she should, but she was determined to finish her Charms homework that evening. Halfway through the essay, however, a shadow fell over her page. She set down her quill and looked up at James.

"Well, what do you know?" she joked weakly. "James Potter in the library."

He didn't smile. He took the seat next to her without asking whether she minded, and stared off into the middle distance for a moment.

"James?" She wasn't sure why she'd stopped using his surname. It just didn't feel right, somehow. "Are you okay?"

It took him a while to answer. "Look, it's okay. I get it."

"Get what?" she asked, genuinely confused.

"That you don't ever want to go out with me." He wasn't looking at her. His hands were clenching and unclenching into fists, and he was watching them as though unsure whether he had any control over them anymore. She stared at him for a long moment, not knowing what to say, and jumped when he spoke again. "Normally I'd be pretty pissed that you used such a cruel way to get your message across." He gave a bitter laugh. "But I guess I was too pig-headed to listen when you told me outright, so I didn't leave you much choice, did I?"

Still she couldn't think of anything to say. "James…" She began anyway, but he was standing up to go. "Just do me one favour, eh? I've got the message now, so whatever it is you're doing – just stop. Please."

She knew she had to say something, anything, but it was although her throat had closed up. She watched him leave in silence, and tried to remember whether she had ever felt this inexplicably guilty about anything before.


	7. Saturday: James Potter

**And so, after literally days of waiting, the time has finally come.**

**Thank you to NymphadoracallmeTonks, sonnieray, IWishIHadWeasleyHair, queensimi88, xxSiriusxxforeverxx and a Guest reviewer for your reviews for Chapter 6.**

* * *

Saturday was the Gryffindor Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, although Lily, never the keenest of fans, had completely forgotten about this. Usually on a match day there would have been a buzz around the Gryffindor table at breakfast, but today the Captain, one James Potter, was remarkably subdued, and it was having a knock-on effect on the everyone else.

"What did you say to Potter?" Marlene asked incredulously, looking over at the dark-haired boy, who was bent over his cornflakes and not looking at anyone. "Because it looks like it worked! He's finally got the message!"

Lily winced as Marlene unconsciously echoed James' own words from the previous evening.

"Yeah, and that's great and everything, but did you have to do it just before a match?" grumbled Alice, who played Chaser alongside James and Frank.

Marlene, who only followed Quidditch for what she termed the "eye-candy," rolled her eyes, as Lily went on munching her breakfast in silence. If you had asked her a week ago, she would have said that she wished for nothing more than for James Potter to "get the message." So why, now that he had, did she feel so thoroughly miserable?

x-x-x-x-x

On her way down to the pitch, Lily managed to shake off the other girls. In all honesty, she wasn't even completely sure why she was going to the match; she had no desire to be surrounded by Gryffindors, or to spend her morning watching James. And yet there she was, walking down to do just that.

"Lily!"

_Oh dear Merlin, not now,_ she begged the universe silently, but a hand grabbed her arm and she knew there could be no escape. "Hello, Severus," she said, without looking up at him.

"Why didn't you sit with me yesterday?" he demanded, getting straight to the point. "Is it because…"

He thought it was because of their almost-kiss, she realised, and didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or cry. In ordinary circumstances she would have tried to be tactful in her response, but today she was in no mood for that, so she said bluntly, "I overheard you with Mulciber and Black and the others in the library on Thursday night."

He stopped in his tracks, but she didn't pause to wait or to look at him, so after a moment he ran to catch up with her. "Lily! Lily, you know I didn't mean… But I couldn't tell them the truth, could I?"

"And have them keep you in their little gang? No, probably not."

"Gang? What are you…"

She spun around to face him. "Don't give me that, Severus, you know full well what I mean. That gang of wannabe Death Eaters you seem so desperate to hang around with."

The words she had been supressing for months hung in the air between them, and they stared at each other, neither quite able to believe what had just been said. Finally she turned to go, but he reached out for her, holding her back. "Wait, Lily."

She looked steadily at him. "It's a straight choice, Sev. Death Eaters or me."

For a moment he hesitated. Again she turned to go, but again he pulled her back. "You," he said firmly, and she heard the new resolve in his voice.

"Me?" she repeated softly.

"Always."

And for a moment, she believed him.

x-x-x-x-x

By the time Lily found Marlene, Mary, and Jackie, propping up a giant Gryffindor flag between them, Hufflepuff were already three goals up, with James' side yet to score. As Lily approached, Black, who was lounging in the row behind the girls, threw an Every Flavour Bean at her.

"Oi!"

"You broke James," retorted Black simply. "He's flying terribly."

Lily glanced at Remus, who was sitting next to Black, a Gryffindor scarf around his neck and a book open in his lap. As though sensing her look, he glanced up and nodded, once.

She groaned. If James was flying badly because she, Lily, had upset him, and the rest of Gryffindor found out that that was why he was flying badly – well, she quite frankly didn't fancy her chances of getting away from the pitch un-hexed. She settled gloomily into an empty seat next to Marlene, and tried to ignore Black's piercing stare, which she could feel burning into the back of her neck. Instead, she fixed her eyes on the Quaffle, which happened to be spinning through the air from Alice to Frank.

Moments later, Gryffindor as one gave a gasp, as Dawlish, the burly Hufflepuff captain, shot towards Frank. Frank had only a moment to act, and since Alice was busy escaping a well-placed Bludger attack, he had no choice but to toss it to his left, where James was waiting.

Lily wasn't entirely sure what made her do it. But then, all her best-laid plans of the week had got her nowhere, so maybe it was about time she started acting on instinct. As soon as James' hands had managed to get a firm grip on the Quaffle, she found herself on her feet, and her voice rang out over the crowd: "You can do it, James!"

Did he hear her? It was hard to say. For a second she was sure that he glanced her way, but the moment was too brief to be certain and then he was off, tearing down the pitch. Dawlish raced after him but to no avail – and before the Hufflepuff Keeper had a chance to react, the Gryffindor Captain was celebrating a return to form.

"Well, if I'd known it was that easy to fix him I'd have done it myself." Lily turned to see that Black was still staring at her, his mouth twitching in amusement. Maybe he, too, had seen James' eyes flicker to their corner of the stands.

"I don't know whether you'd have had quite the same effect, my dear Padfoot." This was from Remus. He had looked up from his book, and Lily was both relieved and irritated to see that his face flickered, not with anger this time, but with amusement.

"Maybe you're right, Moony, maybe you're right." The look that the two boys were exchanging was simply infuriating. "What do you think, Evans?"

"Go die in a hole, Black," she snapped, turning her back on the pair of them. Black chortled quietly, and Lily sat down to watch the rest of the game, pretending not to notice the snide looks Marlene, who had heard everything, kept shooting her way.

x-x-x-x-x

In the end, James led his side to victory by two hundred and ten points to forty. Everyone seemed to have forgotten how terribly the first few minutes of the match had gone, and by the time Lily got back to the common room, a party was already in full swing. James was standing on a coffee table, swigging from a bottle of firewhisky and conducting the assembled crowd in a chorus of _Odo the Hero,_ with "Odo" being somewhat unimaginatively replaced with "Potter." Lily couldn't help feel that they could have chosen a more cheerful song, but James seemed to be enjoying himself, so she allowed herself an indulgent smile as she watched him take another gulp of alcohol.

"You _like _him."

Lily spun around to find that Marlene was watching her, looking half-stunned, half-victorious. "You actually like Potter!"

"No!" Lily protested, too fast. "No," she said again, forcing her voice to steady itself. "I just feel like I've been a bit… insensitive, this week. And I guess I feel bad about it."

"I'd still love to know what you did to him."

And Lily realised, then and there, what a ridiculous plan hers had been all along. She had been determined to have her first kiss, because she was too embarrassed to admit that she'd never been kissed before. But what good would that do her? If she had come skipping up to Marlene, joyfully announcing that she had kissed Sev, or Remus, or Black or Benjy or Pettigrew, where would that have got her, exactly? She would still have been stuck with the so-called humiliation of admitting that she, like Mary, had made it to sixteen and never kissed a boy. And how, exactly, would any of those stories been received by her friends? Kissing Remus would have been deemed acceptable, Benjy reasonable, Black almost inevitable – but had she ever really imagined that Marlene would have been anything less than horrified had she admitted to kissing Pettigrew, let alone Sev?

She had spent the last week trying, when it came down to it, to impress Marlene. If Marlene hadn't made that comment about Mary, none of this would ever have happened. And yet impressing Marlene was such an unlikely concept, and at this precise moment Lily wasn't sure that it was something she ever wanted to achieve. Was it really so humiliating, to say that she was waiting for something – special? She had never thought so before. Looking at the blonde girl now, Lily was overcome with a wave of righteous anger.

"I can't really take any of the credit, Marlene," she spat, and Marlene recoiled in surprise. "I was just doing everything you taught me to do."

And with that, she turned and marched out of the common room.

x-x-x-x-x

"I heard you, you know."

Lily jumped and spun around. James was leaning against the entrance to the owlery, his arms folded and his head on one side.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she snapped.

"Yeah you do. I heard you." He stepped into the room, surprisingly steady considering how much firewhisky she had seen him choke down before her sudden exit. "So my question is, why aren't you downstairs celebrating with the rest of us?"

She shrugged, turning to stare once again out of the window. "Marlene annoyed me."

"Is there anyone in Gryffindor tower who doesn't annoy you?"

"Yes," she snapped, irritated, as he appeared beside her, leaning against the window ledge and, like her, staring out over the lake.

"Do I really get on your nerves that much?" She gazed straight ahead, determined not to look at him. His voice was suddenly soft and gentle, like it had been in the dormitory that night.

"Yes," she said stubbornly, and then sighed. "No. I mean… sometimes."

"And sometimes not?"

"Very occasionally not," she admitted, and to her horror realised that the corners of her mouth were twitching. He noticed, and grinned. "Aw, come on, Lily, just one smile?"

"Since when do you call me Lily?"

"Since you called me James in front of the entire school?" he replied fairly. She responded with a non-committal snort.

After a few moments, he sighed. "Look, Lily. I'm giving you a one-time only chance now. Tell me to go away and I'll leave you alone forever. I'll never ask you out again, I won't talk about our wedding, I'll stop thinking up names for our kids and I'll tell Sirius he'll have to find someone else to be best man for…"

"James…"

"That's not a joke, Lily, I really have been thinking about all that, Sirius has been writing his speech for the last two years." At last she decided that she had no choice now but to turn to look at him, and his eyes, when they met hers, were deadly serious. "But Lily, I promise I'll stop. All you have to do is say the word, here, now, and I'll stop."

Lily stared at him for a few moments that felt like a lifetime. She had never noticed how warm and dark his eyes were before. They had always been too well hidden behind his glasses.

_Oh, what the hell,_ she thought.

James' eyes widened slightly as her lips crashed firmly into his. Lily had taken herself by surprise as well as him, and found herself leaning a hand on his shoulder to steady herself; he stood frozen for a moment before one arm wrapped clumsily around her waist and his lips began to move against hers.

It couldn't have lasted more than a couple of seconds, before they broke apart. He blinked heavily at her, and she realised that she had knocked his glasses so that they lay skewwhiff on his face. She reflected internally that she might have been a touch too... well... aggressive, but it was too late to take it back now. James was still gaping at her. _Say something, you idiot,_ she wanted to scream, though whether she was talking to herself or to James she didn't quite know.

"Bloody hell, Evans," James managed eventually.

"This doesn't mean we're together, Potter," Lily snapped at him fiercely. "This doesn't mean anything, except…"

She let the rest of the sentence hang as she searched herself for the ending. What, exactly, did or didn't this mean?

In the end she gave up. She turned her back on James, who was still staring at her, speechless, and ran out of the owlery.

As she descended the stairs, James recovered his voice and his words floated down the stairs after her. "You didn't say the word!"

_No,_ she thought to herself, as she ran. _I guess I didn't._

* * *

**A huge thank you again to everyone who has read, and especially to my lovely reviewers. It's been great to know that you guys have been reading and enjoying this. Hopefully the last chapter does not disappoint!**


	8. Sequel Announcement

**Hi everyone,**

**Sorry, this isn't an update on this story. I've had various reviews saying that you'd have liked to see James and Lily together properly, and I have to admit the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to leave them hanging. The thing is, I quite like this story as it is, and I didn't want to let it turn into some big long epic when it's quite nice and self-contained at the moment.**

**So, I wracked my brains for a while and came to the decision to write a sequel. And then things spiralled and got out of control and the upshot of it all is, "Kiss Me Quick" has become the first part of a series called "Seven Weeks, Seven Kisses." Because that's how long it takes to fall in love with James Potter.**

**I'm not making promises about timescales at the moment, because I'm doing my final year at uni and things are a bit hectic. However all the stories are going to be in the same format as this one, seven chapters, one for each day of the week, and I'll post each story over a week like I did with this one.**

**Now here's the exciting bit: the first chapter of Part Two, "Severed Ties," is now up! So if you want to know how James and Lily are coping in the aftermath of their first kiss, I'd love you to come and check it out.**

**I'd also like to take this opportunity to publically thank everyone who posted reviews for the last chapter, and I hope you enjoy the sequels that your reviews inspired :)**


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